and steve harrigan is our man in cairo. how big a threat are the protesters there to the president in. >> what we saw tonight is clearly an escalation on behalf of the protesters who want do drive morsi from the government. they broke through iron gates and went through barbed wire and only with the use of tear gas they were kept off the presidential palace. they never breached the walls of the compound. as far as security threat it could be overstated. he does not live in the palace but in a cairo suburb. so he did actually leave the palace while the protest was going on. >>shepard: anything from him at all? do we know if he is standing firm or what did we have? >>reporter: well, no sign of compromise from the president. the strategy of the government seems to be to try and avoid bloodshed and back up as long as possible without giving in. they have a boost today with the chief judges in the council said they will monitor the referendum on the new constitution december 15 so that gives what he is doing a sense legitimacy a